SPECIAL ENQUIRY

THE DRUG-TAKER

A woman's early life was a sorry story of heartache and drug abuse which led her to a Northampton mental hospital where she told doctors she was the devil.

While receiving treatment at St. Andrews Hospital a doctor suggested she should contact the Jesus Fellowship.

Now those awful days are long gone, and the woman (29) is living happily at New Creation Hall in Bugbrooke and working at the Fellowship's Goodness Foods shop in Weedon.

Born in Leicester, the woman had a very unsettled childhood, running away from school and rebelling against her wealthy background.

At 15 she ran off to London and slowly but surely moved into the seedy world of drugs and drink.

'Finally I ended up in St. Andrew's in about 1976 in a very frightened state.' Remembered the woman, 'I just hadn't been able to find any help and I was convinced I was the devil.'

A social worker and doctor suggested to her that she should get in touch with the Jesus People, so she visited them at their house in Harlestone road.

'I was very mixed up at the time so I was very grateful when I found people I could trust who seemed to have a genuine love for me,' she said. 'I knew they were people of God.'

She stayed with the Jesus People for six months, and then, she left.

'I knew these people were of the truth, but I never thought I could be holy like them,' she explained. 'I wasn't sure if I could give my whole life to God so I went away to learn the hard way.'

She returned to drink and drugs and started down the slippery slope to ruin, until a conversation suddenly made everything clear.

'Someone said to me while I was drunk that I was either a Satanist or a Jesus freak,' she remembered. 'I suddenly knew that I had to make a choice and that what I wanted was to live a normal life.'

'I went back to the Jesus People straight away, and they welcomed me with open arms.'

She sees her early existence as a lesson from God. 'There was never a time when I'd have said God didn't exist, but during my worst times I thought I had lost him,' she said. 'Now I believe that God allowed things to happen to me so that he could bring me out of it.'

'Before I met the Jesus People I had no hope of living a normal life again.'